The present invention relates to a gas separator assembly for a gas turbine engine combustion chamber, more particularly such an assembly which improves the heat exchange between combustion zones within the combustion chamber and eliminates high temperature concentrations on the assembly.
Combustion chambers having a generally annular configuration extending about an axis of symmetry and defined by opposite sidewalls and an end wall are known in the art. It is also known to utilize two distinct arrays of fuel injector nozzles to inject fuel into two combustion zones within the combustion chamber. Typically, one of the arrays of the fuel injectors are utilized to supply fuel to the combustion chamber in a first operational mode of the gas turbine engine, such as under low power conditions, while the other array of fuel injector nozzles inject fuel into the combustion chamber under second operational conditions, such as full power. It is also known to have oxidizer intake passageways through the end of the combustion chamber in order to supply oxidizer to support the combustion of the fuel/oxidizer mixture, as well as to provide a gas separating assembly attached to the end of the combustion chamber and inserted between the respective fuel injector arrays. A typical example of such structure can be found in U.K. patent application 2 010 408.
The design of the gas separator assembly is critical to the combustion chamber design in order to provide the proper heat exchange between the combustion zones in the chamber. The known gas separation assemblies, however, do not provide the optimum heat exchange due to the presence of "dead" zones wherein such heat exchange is nonexistent or inadequate. In particular, the known separation assemblies do not provide any heat exchange by convection. Also, the known gas separation assemblies comprise large projections inside the combustion chamber and tend to form hot spots thereon which interfere with the combustion process.